Why did the United States and the Soviet Union mistrust each other after World War II?
1 Answer
Return to status quo. Sovietization of Eastern Europe, USSR-China alliance.
Explanation:
The Soviet Union's proclaimed goal was worldwide communism. Due to this, there had been no trust from the start between the two countries. The WWII was a period of untypical cooperation between them. Once the common goal of crushing the Nazi Germany was achieved, the relationship returned to the normal state. Even during the WWII, the level of trust was limited.
Right after the WWII, the USSR embarked upon the sovietization of the European regions under its occupation. Despite promising to hold fair elections in these countries, the USSR set up puppet regimes. The US feared further encroachment of the USSR and expansion of the "red zone". The alliance of the USSR and the Communist China made the "red zone" downright horrifying in size: it stretched from Berlin to Shanghai.
On their part, the Soviet rulers were constantly afraid of the possible encroachment of "western influence" among the population (the influence of consumerism, democratic values, free press, liberalism, western art, music, cinema, just about anything). Their very rule depended on constant anti-Western scaremongering.
There has been a return to this practice in the recent years in Russia, but still we are permeated by Western media etc. In the USSR, to allow such a level of Western penetration would've been suicidal to the regime, because it wouldd have shattered too many sensitive lies. Because of that, "trusting" the West was out of the question.
If in the US it was allowable to express positive feelings about the USSR and the Communist Party, in the USSR the western states were seen as 'ideologial enemies' and it was not until the arrival of Nikita Khruschev that the doctrine of "Peaceful Coexistence" was proclaimed. Even after that, it was not until about 1989 that a Soviet politician could pursue a pro-Western policy or express pro-Western views and remain in his seat (or stay alive, before 1953).
P.S. Feel free to fix any grammar errors in the text. I'm not very consistent in backshifting of tenses, usage of articles and selection of proper words. I'd be interested to see where my mistakes are.
